God does not regret creating Arabs -----Reply to Ovadia Yosef, the Israeli spiritual leader, Part 2

10/10/10

18. And supposing the tide of Islam had not been stemmed? Nothing so delayed the advance of science in the West as the clumsiness of the Roman numerals. Had the Arabic numerals, which had reached Baghdad from India towards the end of the eighth century, be soon afterwards introduced into and adopted by western Europe as a whole, much of that scientific progress which we associate with the Renaissance in Italy might have been achieved several centuries earlier.

Wilfrid Blunt, quoted in the The Times (London), April 2, 1976

19. Arabic numerals – the numbers, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 they may have originated in India, but were introduced to the western world from Arabia……. These numbers became known to western intellectuals in the ninth century through the writings of the Arab mathematician, Al –Khwarizmi, whose explanations of numbers in Arabic reached Europe through Latin translations.

Encyclopedia Britannica (1984), Vol. I. p. 469

20. About 830, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a translator of mathematical and astronomical books from the Sanskrit, published a book which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century, under the title Algorimi de numero Indrum. It was from this that the west first learnt of what we call ‘Arabic' numerals, [which may also to be called ‘Indian].’ The same author wrote a book on algebra which was used in the West as a text-book until the sixteenth century-

Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Society (London, 19840. P. 416

21. At the same time as these advances in medicine were being made, the Muslims produced some of the most outstanding Mathematicians. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, born in 780 A.D., was the founder of modern Algebra. He developed sine, cosine and trigonometrical tables, which were later translated to the West. His book on algebra Hisab al-Jabr waal-Muqabalah (The Calculation of Integration and Equation) was used until the 16th century as the principal textbook of European universities. In it he writes that given an equation, collecting the unknowns in one side of the equation is called al-Jabr and collecting the knowns in the other side of the equation is called al- Mukabalah. He also described six basic types of equations: nx=m , x^2=nx , x^2=m , m+x^2 =nx, m+nx +x^2 and x^2=m+nx. He also solved the particular equation x^2+21=10x using geometrical arguments.

Al-Khawarizmi also helped introduce Arabic numerals, the decimal position system, and the concept of zero. Algebra and Algorithm are in fact [derivative] of his work and name. Interestingly, this first book on algebra included many examples from the Islamic inheritance laws and how they could be solved using algebra. Under [The King] al-Mamun the caliph of the time, he with some others were the first to map the globe.

22. Islamic art took from the civilizations surrounding it and also impacted them. The Chinese were influenced in their vases and carpets. Medieval Europe were influenced in their arts and showed it from their adoption of arches to their illuminations of Latin and Hebrew manuscripts. Of course the epitome of Islamic art can be seen in the greatest Islamic masterpieces such as the grand mosques of Cordova in Spain, the Taj Mahal in India, and the Blue mosque in Turkey. The works of these Muslim artists have become prototypes and models on which other artists and craftsmen patterned their own works, or from which they derived the inspiration for related work-

Huma Ahmed, Muslim Contributions to Science, Philosophy and the Arts

23. The Spanish Arabs developed agriculture to such an extent that it became a regular science. They studied trees and carried out research on the properties of soil. Vast expanses of land which had hitherto been lying infertile were then converted into orchards and lush green fields. It was a virtual green revolution.

24. [The Spanish Arabs] dug canals, cultivated grapes and introduced among, other plants and fruits, rice, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, oranges, sugarcane, cotton and saffron. The south-eastern plains of the peninsula, especially favored by climate and soil, developed important centres of rural and urban activity. Here wheat and other grains as well as olives and sundry fruits were raised by a peasantry who worked the soil on shares with the owners.

The agricultural development was one of the glories of Moslem Spain and one of the Arab’s lasting gifts to the land, for Spanish gardens have preserved to this day a “Moorish” imprint. One of the best-known gardens in the Generallife (from Al-Janat al-arif, the inspector’s paradise), a Nasrid monument of the late thirteenth century whose villa was one of the outlying buildings of the Alhamra. This garden, proverbial for its extensive shade, falling waters and soft breeze, was terraced in the form of an amphitheatre and irrigated by streams which, after forming numerous cascades, lost themselves among the flowers, shrubs and trees represented today by few gigantic cypresses [the evergreen coniferous] trees and myrtles [shrubs having evergreen leaves, fragrant white flowers and aromatic berries] –

Philip K.Hitti, History of the Arabs (London , 1970), p. 528

25. One of the best features of the Arab economy was agriculture, particularly the skillful use of irrigation, which they learnt from living where water is scarce. To this day Spanish agriculture profits by Arab irrigation works –

Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, P. 416

26. [Mr. Russell] explanation is [not correct] The true, underlying cause of this feat is the monotheistic revolution which had overhauled the minds of Arabs. Prior to this, people had seen river, springs, and the sea in the form of gods. They held them to be objects of reverence rather than of conquest. The Arabs with their changed mind saw these phenomena of nature in the form of God’s creations. [The Arabs considered the work of improvement of irrigation and agriculture as big help for humanity]. It was this mental revolution which enabled the Arabs to perform their historic feats in the world of irrigation and agriculture.

27. In known human history, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is the only historian to have changed the pattern of historiography…. The truth is that the science known today as sociology is the gift of Ibn Khaldun. He himself claimed that he was the founder of sociology, and there is no reason to dispute his claim.

28. Khaldun’s greatness was acknowledged in similar vein by Robert Flint: “As a theorist on history he had no equal in any age or country until Vico appeared, more than three hundred years later; Plato, Aristotle and Augustine were not his peers –

Encyclopedia Britannica (1984). Vol. 16. P. 367.

29. It was indeed Ibn Khaldun who gave to Europe the modern science of history. And it was Islam which bestowed this gift upon him. The Islamic revolution produced Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Khaldun produced the modern science of history.

30. In Book I of the Muqaddamah, Ibn Khaldun sketches a general sociology, in Books II and III, sociology of politics; in Book IV a sociology of urban life; in Book V, a sociology of economics; and in Book VI, a sociology of knowledge. The work is studded with brilliant observations on historiography, economics, politics, and education. It is held together by his central concept of asabiyah, or social cohesion. Thus he laid the foundation of a science of history which is, in a vaster sense, based on the economics, politics, education, religion, ethics, and culture of the whole nation –

Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs (London, 1970), p. 568

31. The fame of Ibn-Khaludun rests in his Muqaddama (introduction to his book on history). In it he presented for the first time a theory of historical development which takes due cognizance of the physical facts of climate and geography as well as of the moral and spiritual forces at work. As one who endeavored to formulate laws of national progress and decay, Ibn Khaldun may be considered the discoverer- as he himself- claimed – of the true scope and nature of history, or at least the real founder of the science of sociology. No Arab writer, indeed no European, had ever taken a view of history at once so comprehensive and philosophic. By the consensus of critical opinion Ibn-Khaldun was the greatest historical philosopher Islam produced, and one of the greatest of all time

Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs (London, 1970)

32. [British Poet] Wordsworth acknowledges the great Arab intellectual tradition and its contribution to world knowledge. The Arab is made to appear with a stone and shell, standing respectively for the books of science and poetry; so doing, Wordsworth acknowledges the Arab preservation and transmission of knowledge which helped retrieve Greek ideas. Far from the conventional “Noble Savage”, Wordsworth’s Arab stands out as a culture-hero. More importantly, the Arab in The Prelude has answers to the dreamer’s questions, signifying the opening of doors for dialogue and communication between the West and the Islamic world. Wordsworth is perhaps the first writer to grant this equal status to an Arab, who is no more conventionally cast in the role of a warrior or an enemy. –

Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Perceptions of Islam and Muslims in English Literature: A Historical Survey

Next article will be titled "Muslims and the West; Encounter and Dialogue